Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Highlighting that the shared goal of India and Russia is to maximise complementarity ties , External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on August 21 expressed confidence that his discussions with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov will be “fruitful, productive” and contribute to making the annual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin later this year as “outcome-oriented as possible.”
“Today’s meeting gives us an occasion to discuss our political relationship as well but also to review our bilateral ties. So, I look forward to an exchange of views on politics, trade, on economic investment, defence, science and technology and of course people-to-people exchanges. Our leaders met in July for the 22nd Annual Summit last year and thereafter in Kazan. We now prepare for the annual summit at the end of the year and they have always given us guidance to take forward our Special and Privileged Strategic relationship,” Jaishankar stated in his opening remarks during his meeting with Lavrov in Moscow.
“We have had as you noted a very productive meeting with Denis Manturov on the Inter-Governmental Commission. We discussed a lot of issues in our bilateral cooperation, found a lot of solutions as well. I would be very happy to share that. But most important, what I want to do today is to take those bilateral discussions forward so that we have the maximum outcomes for the annual summit when that happens,” Jaishankar added.
Jaishankar recalled other recent high-level engagements between India and Russia, including National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and Union Minister of Railways and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw’s visits to Moscow.
